Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

So states Linus’s Law. Coined by Eric Raymond in his book “The Cathedral and the Bazaar:” Given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix obvious to someone. Or, less formally, “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” I dub this: “Linus’s Law”. My original formulation […]

NYC’s new mayor to replace Central Park horse carriages with EVs Because romantic horse drawn open air carriage rides through Central Park are EXACTLY what has kept me from visiting New York City. The prospect of enjoying the city from the cramped confines of an EV that smells vaguely like vomit certainly changes the incentive! […]

In a previous post, Experts in a Time of Unreason, I made reference to a case involving six scientists and a government official convicted of manslaughter for the failure to predict the 2009 earthquake that killed more than 300 people and leveled the city of L’Aquila. A year later, one of the convicted scientists, Enzo […]

Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D-NY): In some forty years of government work I have learned one thing for certain. As I have put it, the central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it […]

So says William Hague, England’s Foreign Secretary. “Only terrorists, criminals and spies should fear secret activities of the British and US intelligence agencies.” I appreciate the challenge of collecting accurate intelligence and connecting the dots. It’s the 21st century and the bad guys no longer hang out in shadowed doorways and use dumpsters as drop […]

Previously, I wrote how the government’s poor response to hurricane Sandy is a manifestation of decades worth of mission creep: Micromanagement of the citizenry, on the other hand, is something that should unequivocally be outside the control or influence of governments, if for no other reason than it detracts from the organization’s ability to successfully […]

There are many. The most valuable one for survivors and observers may be that governments, even when optimally structured and run, cannot mitigate the Big Acts of Nature. The optimal structure for a government would have its power and influence limited to addressing the big things that are a consequence of large numbers of people interacting […]

So asks commenter, “Yavin4,” over at DemocraticUnderground.com. Let’s say that you have the ability to print your currency using your computer printer, and every merchant accepted your printouts as a valid exchange for goods and services. You need to pick up your dry cleaning? You printout a $20 bill and your cleaners hand over your […]

This ad from the Libertarian Party sums it up nicely. More government first and foremost brings with it ways to defend and protect more government, whether by corruption, cronyism, bureaucratic process, or military intervention. It’s the law of diminishing returns. Of course, it’s important to sprinkle a little help back to the masses, enough to […]

The ever insightful Mark Steyn correctly points out that free speech isn’t a gift or a privilege to be granted or withdrawn by Ivory Tower bureaucrats. Free speech is a right. Glenn Reynolds follows up with: Well, people need to be more afraid of the good guys for a change, anyway, and not the savages. […]